What part of “personal accountability” is difficult for celebrity athletes to understand?

With social media still all the rage in what we call our adult society, how can they not understand that their standing as “role models,” something most of them get paid mind-bending sums of money to fulfill, has taken on another level of importance and relentlessness?

Just this week, three Philadelphia athletes past and present had their names right where they didn’t belong — in the sports funny pages.

Did Kevin Kolb think it was OK to get drunk behind the wheel, so long as it was a boat instead of a car?

To the comically outrageous ...

Why would Claude Giroux see fit to play that ages-old bar game of grabass in a public place, much less with a cop?

Acts of nonsense are always followed by nonsensical questions, with the embarrassed (we hope) parties only needing to answer to those people who matter: Their bosses, their team’s fans.

Et tu, Giroux, who presumably has been locked in his Ontario cottage behind drawn drapes and dead-bolted doors.

He will soon be face-timing with head coach Craig Berube, general manager Ron Hextall and president Paul Holmgren, all of them trained in the art of in-your-face lecturing.

While Johnson and the Eagles haven’t said a word, and Kolb’s mug shot with a curled lip after being arrested for boating DUI said it all, it remains to be seen what the reaction of Giroux and the Flyers will be after this funny misadventure that they think might carry serious implications.

Officially, the club didn’t stray from a morning statement released under Hextall’s name, which said only that the Flyers wouldn’t be commenting on the report until they “have more information.” So Giroux probably had to offer to his bosses his version of the story that broke in Wednesday’s edition of Ottawa’s tabloid newspaper, The Sun.

The story cited sources alleging Giroux spent the night in an Ottawa jail after “repeatedly grabbing the buttocks of a male police officer.”

Shockingly, the paper reported that alcohol was believed to have been involved, and that the incident occurred outside a place called The Great Canadian Cabin in the Byward Market “club district.” Giroux was not charged, so indeed it was a ...

Happy Canada Day!

The paper later reported he was expected to pay a $20,000 donation to charity. He’ll likely also offer up an apology to the organization, to the fans, for what he will say was ... well, you ever have one of those nights?

Giroux still might get a call from Pat Brisson, hockey agent superstar, who these days is in the midst of trying to find work for Marty Brodeur and negotiating contract extensions for both Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, which will see them earn in excess of $10 million a year. Not bad work if you can get it.

Like five years ago when a report got out that Kane had allegedly assaulted a cab driver in Buffalo, Brisson will have to deal with a client causing a public embarrassment.

Giroux hasn’t done that before, but last summer he had to explain he wouldn’t be ready for Flyers training camp because of a freak accident on the golf course (again in the Ottawa area). A somewhat accomplished amateur on the links, he said he grounded his club and “shattered” its shaft, which then impaled his hand. Giroux claimed responsibility for missing time, then steamed as he got off to a slow start. Of course, he wound up hitting MVP form shortly thereafter, so all was forgotten.

But the Flyers don’t easily forget public indiscretions by their players, especially when those players are team captains.

They were embarrassed a few years back by the so-called internet “coverage” of the off-ice lives of young stars Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. They were about the same age then that Giroux, 26, is now.

Though Holmgren, Hextall and Berube were all elsewhere during Eric Lindros’ rookie season, this story harkens back to when the then 19-year-old star went into a club in Oshawa, Ontario, called KooKoo Bananas on Nov. 28, 1992. A 24-year-old woman alleged Lindros spit beer on her, and the cops were called in. Lindros and his family played that out, with pictures of him being led away in cuffs in all the newspapers, and resulting in a trial in Ontario Provincial Court the following winter.

Good times. Bad PR.

This incident won’t match that kind of comedic drama. But if Giroux is a captain, he’s going to have to accept the consequences of the job — and the pinch of role model responsibility.

About the Author

Rob Parent is the Daily Times sports editor. He also covers the Flyers as well as writing an occasional column. Reach the author at rparent@delcotimes.com
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